Project Maelstrom
by TenshiEren14
Summary: Due to genetic experiments carried out by Team Rocket at the time of the creation of Mew2, three young boys were turned into man-made weapons. Projects Shadow, Sandstream and Maelstrom are now all free and roaming Sinnoh. Approach with caution as DNA between the three is unstable. Just an experimental crossover with Naruto and Pokemon. Enjoy. rewritten !
1. Chapter 1

**Project Maelstrom**

**Yo~ hi everyone, Eren here and right now, I have a serious block to MCB so I went to scrub my gallery and BOOM. Instant idea. Honestly though, it's something that I've been contemplating doing for a while now but scrubbing those bannisters just got my juices flowing for some reason XD **

**Anyway, this is basically a Naru/Poke crossover where Shikamaru, Gaara and Naruto are all Poke/Human hybrids that were the result of experiments carried out by Team Rocket. This is going to be fun to write and create since I don't have to do too much concerning planning. So, enjoy~~**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or Naruto but I do own a special edition Shiny Giratina doll. That counts, right?**

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**January/XX/XX – Project Maelstrom Begin.**

Project Maelstrom, the first of its kind, a hybrid born and genetically engineered to be the sole force that is capable of stopping and/or destroying Project Mew2.

Subject is the sole survivor of the Namikaze purge and its DNA is beyond perfect for this type of experiment. Subject is currently one year old and experimentation will begin promptly in February when scans show physical capability of supporting the DNA of the following Pokemon; Lucario, Zoroark and Gallade.

Until then, all medical units will ensure that the subject is in full health so experimentation can begin on time.

**February/XX/XX – Experiments and Progress**

-Today was the first day of experiments. While the subject was asleep, Professor Long injected it with the Zoroark serum to ensure the easy transference between the different species. Subject seems to display slight discomfort but other than that, it is displaying no visible signs of instant side-effects.

-My previous observation was proven correct. Two weeks have passed and subject has been cleared as a perfectly healthy toddler. This is remarkable as Zoroark's DNA seems to have fully accepted and blended into Project Maelstrom's own genetic code causing a perfect blend of human/Poke characteristics. Maelstrom is now displaying the curiosity of a Zorua as well as sharing the tell-tale black and red hair. Maelstrom is also able to unconsciously transform into certain inanimate objects, such as clipboards and food. Maelstrom has also been able to copy speech patterns.

-It is the final week of February and the next sequence must be conducted. Once again, Maelstrom was placed under a drug's influence and we injected Gallade's genetic strip into the subject. Subject showed intense pain and when blood was extracted for testing, it was discovered that Gallade's DNA was slowly overpowering that of its human counterpart. Incubation required.

**May/XX/XX – Genetic Coding Complete**

-We were able to solve the problem after one month of constant caretaking. Project was injected with Lucario DNA and like with the Zoroark, Maelstrom accepted the DNA with no problem. This month subject will begin training to utilize the power it has been granted.

-Unfortunately, after sending my findings to the base, it was decided that Project Maelstrom along with its secret counterparts Shadow and Sandstream, will begin physical training at the age of four. Until then, behavioural analysis will be administered.

-After three weeks of spending time with Project Maelstrom, I've discovered that the child is extremely active and mischievous. Project also seems to be aging faster than a human child, though the reason for that is still undiscovered. Maelstrom has taken to calling me 'Master' after it was revealed that I was in charge of its creation. Observation required.

**January/XX/ XZ – Physical Training begins**

**-**Project Maelstrom is extremely excited at the notion of physical training. Maelstrom excels at hand-to-hand combat and after three weeks of sparring against masters of the art, the subject seems to have already mastered the administered style of fighting. Maelstrom is still extremely energetic and enjoys pranking the staff.

-Today, Maelstrom managed to get out of his habitat and released the Hawlucha that were being held for Lord Giovanni. It also managed to paint over the entire observation deck and scribble crude art over multiple surfaces. Punishment pending.

**March/XX/XZ – Training Continues**

-Maelstrom seems to thrive on attention. It enjoys having multiple parties participating in spars and it enjoys being around other Pokemon on the floor. Maelstrom has also displayed the ability to make comrades out of just about everyone and thing on the floor. Close up observation no longer required.

**October/XX/XZ – Maelstrom's Recoding**

-Project Maelstrom's infinite energy is proving to be difficult to handle. Due to it already being able to transform and fight as well as control things around it, Maelstrom often trains and has become extremely adept in using its power. It is now five years of age, physically ten. Maelstrom's stamina causes problems; however, as it hardly ever gets tired and if it were to exhaust itself, it would destroy its habitat. The decision is to recode Maelstrom's DNA so it either has less stamina or a less energetic personality.

**December/XX/XZ – Backlash**

-Project Maelstrom's body violently rejected the Slaking serum. It is now extremely ill and is incapable of movement. Its blood is also now a slightly bluish grey colour as it seems to be attempting to recover. Man-made medicines worsen the reaction and Maelstrom now psychically attacks any and all professors and nurses that enter its habitat. The death toll thus far is 27.

-Projects Shadow and Sandstream were deployed to exterminate Project Maelstrom, however, something unbelievable happened. Both Shadow and Sandstream healed and repaired Project Maelstrom. Thus it was discovered that all three projects must be kept together. Re-incubation and mental flush required.

**August/XX/YA- Permanent Recoding**

-Project Mew2 is now close to completion and as such, Projects Maelstrom, Sandstream and Shadow are now minor projects to be handled by Professor Jonathon Sui-Feng. My last job as the overseer of the Projects was to permanently re-code Maelstrom's DNA using the doses of the newly acquired Darkrai and Salamence serums.

-Serums were administered while Maelstrom was still conscious as punishment for another 'boredom-reducing prank'. Maelstrom shows extreme hostility to all staff and refuses anyone with the exception of Project Sandstream. Maelstrom has also destroyed all inner base cameras making his habitat the only un-observed habitat on the island.

-Maelstrom's personality has now become solemn. Recoding success.

**October/XX/YA – Naruto, Shikamaru and Gaara RELEASED.**

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**Hoenn Ten years later.**

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"Mr Briney! We're here for that ride you promised us!" A tall blonde haired teen shouted as he ran into a small, quaint house sitting at the edge of a wooden pier. He had a single red streak running through his shoulder length hair and kept the bangs out of his face with the use of many multi-coloured hairpins. He had on a blue and black outfit which consisted of a black muscle shirt and a blue high-collared jacket above it. His white jeans and blue boots completed the ensemble as well as the various braces on his right arm as well as the strangely rainbow-coloured orb that was placed into a bracelet on his left wrist. His smile was infectious and his six whisker-like birthmarks (three on each cheek) gave the impression of a fox-like individual. His name was Namikaze Naruto.

"Naruto, calm down. We have, like, forever before we have to get to Sinnoh." A lazy drawl followed behind him. The voice was a bit like liquid honey, sweet and rich. The kind of voice one received after years of strenuous singing and vocal training. The owner of the voice was a taller raven teen with a cigarette hanging limply between his lips. He was slouching slightly, the posture of someone who seemed to prefer sitting around and doing nothing over whatever-the-hell his friends were dragging him to do this time around. His narrow silver eyes were at half-mast as he slowly and deliberately strolled into the quaint seaside house. This was Nara Shikamaru.

"You keep quiet. You're just pissed because you didn't get to finish your nap." A short red-head finished the trio. He wore a serene expression however, due to the thick, red-tinted shades he wore, it was impossible to tell his eye colour. He had a tattoo of the kanji for love over his left eye and wore a simple sleeve-less white vest with a Mareep-wool lined green jacket over it. He also wore black skinny jeans and black and blue speckled flip-flops to finish his outfit. He was known simply as Gaara.

"Well, well, you children are so filled of energy, yes! Peeko and I were a bit worried that you had forgotten about the trip!" Mr Briney was an elderly man with a large sunhat. His plaid board shorts and female Wingull perched upon his head were the most dynamic things about him.

Naruto smiled, "Never, gramps! It's way too important to get to Sinnoh. There's no way that we'd forget something like this, right Gaara, Shikamaru?"

His friends stared in deadpan at him causing him to sweatdrop slightly. Okay, well, perhaps he did, kinda force them to accompany him to the coldest region in the world, but they had gotten to choose before him. It wasn't his fault that Shikamaru got lazier with the snow or that Gaara disliked the cold.

"Actually, Mr Briney, how about you just take Naruto over there while me and Gaara chill out with Peeko until you get back?" Shikamaru leaned against the doorpost while Gaara nodded in agreement.

The old man chuckled slightly before he walked outside and to the huge ship that was anchored to the pier. The S.S Tidal was a beautiful ship and it was Mr Briney's pride and joy. Peeko flew off of his hat and took her place proudly at the mast of the ship while Mr Briney led the way inside of his ship with the three teens in tow. "The rules of the old girl are simple. Lay back and have fun!"

Naruto smiled while Gaara slapped the back of his head, still slightly angry at his brother for his choice of region. Shikamaru sighed, "Troublesome. This entire thing is just gonna be one troublesome disaster."

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**Sinnoh Region: Snowpoint City: 10: 30 p.m.**

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The S.S Tidal arrived in Snowpoint City three weeks latermuch to the chagrin of its three passengers. Mr Briney had basically kicked them out of the ship because, evidently, he despised the cold weather as well. The only person who was dressed even slightly for the evening hailstorm was Gaara and the red-head was extremely smug about it. The duo trudged through the ankle-deep snow slowly since Shikamaru insisted that they carry him because he was 'most likely to die from hypothermia' which they didn't doubt. Seriously, half his makeup was Slaking, he had to inherit his lazy from somewhere although Gaara betted that his mother was just into Pokephillia.

At the wonderful time of thirteen past midnight, the snow-ridden, half frozen, just-about-ready-to-drop-from-their-journey duo arrived at the Pokecenter. Naruto actually couldn't believe it took them two hours to get from the pier to the Pokecenter especially since they were in the same city but Gaara blamed it on the fact that they had a passed out Shikamaru on their backs in addition to their travelling supplies.

"Welcome to the Pokecenter! How may I help you?" A cheery Nurse Joy was ignored as the tired trio trudged through the doors. At the burst of over -5 degree heat hit them Naruto and Gaara perked up. Immediately Naruto chuckled and scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "I guess the cold is a bit too much, huh?"

Gaara's glare was suddenly much worse than any blizzard.

They hauled Shikamaru to a couch and threw him haphazardly onto it before taking his two occupied Pokeballs out of his belt as well as their own Pokeballs and walking to the back of the spacious waiting room. Nurse Joy looked sorta annoyed but she put on her award winning smile and asked her questions again. Naruto put in the order for one room and placed the seven Pokeballs on the desk also requesting a check-up for his and his friends Pokemon. She smiled jovially and asked if they needed a wheelchair for their friend that was on the couch. Naruto smirked and Gaara cracked a small, devious smile, "Actually Nurse Joy, leave him to us."

The next morning Shikamaru awoke upright and completely covered in canned snow with sunglasses on is head as well as three Sitrus Berries on his blazer. The words 'Shika the Snowman' were painted on a sign next to him in bright orange acrylic paint as well as an arrow pointing towards a hat that sat next to him. Shikamaru closed his eyes and sighed before calmly getting up and stretching out the kinks in his body. He limped into the Bunker area of the centre and made his way to Naruto's room, systematically checking each room for the blonde-haired teen.  
>He eventually found both him and Gaara sleeping peacefully in Room 206 and he smirked before unravelling the wire he usually kept in his back pocket.<p>

"This is troublesome. Oh well."

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**Well that was basically an introduction to the world of Project Maelstrom. At this point in time, it's gonna be really happy and stuff but from the next chapter and onwards, we're gonna start getting serious. I'm not sure if I want to make this Romance or not because of the fact that there wouldn't really be a place for that but in any case you guys could always vote for who you want to be with them. I mean, no one's going to get a harem because I don't care enough to make something like that happen but I could understand if you wanted them to have girlfriends. However, I'm not going to be adding anyone else into their little travelling group so don't even ask. Here's a list of the girls that I think could work romantically with this plot.**

**Candice**

**Dawn**

**Cynthia**

**Fantina**

**OC**

**Gardenia**

**Hinata**

**Sakura**

**Temari**

**That's it. I'm actually going to have more Naruto characters in this so yeah. Anyway, you can vote by putting the girl's name and who you want her to be with next to her. I was considering yaoi but I know that people are pretty iffy about that and so I crossed it. However, if you want it to be like a side yaoi pairing than I'm fine with that. That's all from me now, and btw, this is what me writing with Writer's block is like. **

**-Tenshi**

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**Project Maelstrom Database: Information on Project Shadow**

**Project Shadow a.k.a. Nara Shikamaru is three years older than Project Maelstrom and was the ACTUAL first project to be created for the purpose of destroying Mew2. However, the body of the young Nara rejected all outside DNA until the age of four when his body accepted the DNA of an alpha male Gengar. His genetic makeup at the physical age of twenty is ¼ human, ¼ Metagross, ¼ Alakazam and ¼ Gengar. In his legitimate form, Shikamaru has a Metagross-like covering over his body as well as a purple Kadabra's tail. He is calculating and extremely adaptable and like his two brethren has a bit of a bloodthirsty streak. His favorite Pokemon is Eevee and his favorite type is Dark. **

**Fun fact: It's believed that he's actually half Slaking or that there was a mishap with his re-coding due to his extremely Truant-like nature. Originally, he was thought to be made a Snorlax but he doesn't have a huge appetite so… **


	2. Getting Used to It

**Chapter 2: Getting Used to It**

**Yo~~ Can I just… YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING. I honestly didn't expect such a huge response to the first chapter, especially since it didn't reflect anything that was going to happen in this story at all. All it did was legit make you guys know that they were in Snowpoint City. That's it XD! Anyway, I thought it best if you guys knew where they had been in ten years and the answer to that is Kalos, Johto and of course, Sinnoh! At this point in time, it's six months before the beginning of canon because we have to give them time to adjust to the temperature of Sinnoh, especially since they just came from relatively warm regions. Anyway, these guys already have their Pokemon picked out for them and I thought that I'd give them one travelling Legend. You know, like the legendary dogs or the bird Trio? That's literally because it's been proven, both in canon and in-game, that there are multiple species of these Pokemon. I thought it would be cheating if they had legit Legends, not to mention, they'd probably destroy whatever region they resided in. Anyway, currently in the lead for pairings is Cynthia with Naruto, Temari and Fantina are tied for Shikamaru and Gardenia with Gaara, though I have no qualms with leaving him single XP **

**This is probably enough blathering, so enjoy!  
><strong> 

**Disclaimer: See Chapter**

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**Sinnoh Region: Snowpoint City: 5 a.m. (Two weeks later)**

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It was freezing. In Snowpoint, before sunrise, temperatures dropped to an all-time low of -10 degrees depending on how close one was to Route 217 and Mount Coronet. Even the various ice-type Pokemon of the frost-covered route knew well enough to sleep until well past sunrise however, if one looked hard enough or listened closely enough; he/she would quite clearly feel the impact of an intense training session. Who were the three tall blurs suicidal enough to train Pokemon in these deplorable conditions? None other than the strange trio that entered the city not more than two weeks ago, that's who!

"Hydreigon use Flash Beam!" Gaara shouted pointing to an abnormally large pine tree. The large purple and black dragon let out a strained growl and began charging up a Hyper Beam, however, instead of its other two head/hands pitching in with the large opaque white beam, a smaller silver coloured beam of energy was beginning to form in their mouths. At their trainer's command, they fired a large sliver-streaked beam at the tree, wiping out an entire line of trees in the process.

The red head trainer smiled warmly at his Pokémon's exerted effort and called the monstrous dragon to his side before looking over to his relaxing brothers and frowning again. At four that morning Naruto had woken both him and Shika up to go 'get acquainted with the environment'. Quite honestly, he had been expecting it much sooner that a whole fourteen days but, in hindsight, he wasn't the only one that got much more sluggish in snow. Then again, half of his genetic code was ground and rock type Pokemon, so it was a no-brainer. At the point in time, his blonde knucklehead of a brother was lying curled up in the warm scales of his beautiful female Milotic while Shikamaru was sleeping in his fur coat with his Gengar as a pillow. How the hell he managed to use a GHOST as a pillow, he would never know, but from what Shikamaru had said before, Gengar were cuddly.

Gaara's frown deepened slightly as he turned towards his own dragon type and gave him a once over before smiling once more since there was no signs of wear or tear on his beloved dragon type. His Hydreigon was a lot sturdier than others but that didn't mean he wanted to prolong the effects of snowstorms on his Hydreigon before it got used to the constant cold weather. He returned it back to its pokeball and waddled through the knee-deep snow and made his way to his drifting younger brother before stopping right in front of him.

Honestly, Naruto was absolutely precious when he was asleep. His mouth was always slightly ajar and he'd always drool lakes, though they were ice rinks due to the instant freeze quality the air now possessed. He felt kinda bad for waking him up, especially since he knew that the teen had been having trouble sleeping for quite some time.

Oh well.

A well-placed snow boot to the face was all it took to his the blonde up and about; though the footprint wouldn't wear off until later that day. Bleary blue eyes registered that they were in the piss-freezing cold of Route 217 before his body registered the fact that he had a size seven steel tipped foot shoved in his face.

"Maff, Waff duff hmm ish wrohg wiff yoh?!"

Gaara smiled at his results, removing his foot from his face and placing his gloved hands on his waist, "You fell asleep, that's what's wrong with me."

Naruto pouted and glared at his brother before noticing the distinct lack of black pineapple shaped hair, "Where's 'Maru?"

Gaara sighed before pointing towards the tree and subsequently, his brother. Naruto petted his beautiful Pokemon before placing her back into the confines of his Pokeball to keep her from getting to sluggish, after all, Milotic were reptilian. He got up and dusted the accumulated snow from his jacket before stretching and allowing a huge grin to stretch over his face.

"What's the time?"

Gaara looked up into the sky and placed his hands over his aqua eyes before looking at his wrist, "Half past five."

Naruto winced before glancing back at his eldest brother and cracking his back, "Do we drag him back to Snowpoint again?"

Gaara looked over at the raven haired trainer before calling out his Kingdra. The majestic dragon duel type looked around before snorting to his trainer, _"The reason you brought me out, master? Hydreigon already basically destroyed half the forest."_

Gaara's non-existent eyebrow twitched at his Pokémon's early morning behaviour. "Good morning to you to, Kingdra. Did you have a good rest?" 

Another snort, _"It's six 'o' clock on a freezing route. I'm not in a very charitable mood."_

Naruto chuckled, "Morning Kingdra, he wants you to lug Shikamaru back to Pokemon Center with us."

The aforementioned Pokemon looked scandalised, _"You want me to what now? Master, no need to be rude but, this is slavery!" _

Narutocouldn't handle the look on Gaara's face and burst out in a gut-rippling bout of laughter, startling Shikamaru from his sleep and causing the trainer to fall out of his low-lying branch and face-first into the snow. His Gengar woke up afterwards and after observing both his trainer and his trainer's brother in the snow, especially as Naruto was laughing along with Kingdra, broke out in an instantaneous bout of sinister chuckles himself. This silenced Naruto as a cold sweat broke out on his neck, he swore, no matter how much time he spent with Shikamaru's team, he never got used to the ghost-types.

"Okay. So this is definitely not white cotton candy," Shikamaru's muffled voice broke through the comfortable silence causing all the present parties to burst out laughing. The raven haired trainer sat up and rubbed his hair, "Stop laughing, I have low-blood pressure."

More laughter ringed out into the cold morning, along with the tired groan of one troubled Nara.

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**Snowpoint City: Pokemon Center: Midday**

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At around twelve that day there was a large commotion in front of the Ice Temple that lay in the middle of the city. It was actually enough for the three brothers to stop lunch with their Pokemon and don their newly bought scarves and gloves to see what exactly was going on. As it turned out, Candice, the gym leader of Snowpoint City, had been injured while on the inside and now numerous paramedic personnel were attempting to get the gym leader out. Of course, paparazzi were also infesting the area as they fought tooth and nail to get the live details of the accident. A large worried crowd also waited anxiously for their trainer to get out, unscathed.

Naruto cursed his hero complex before releasing his Lucario from its Pokeball and closing his eyes. Gaara sighed and turned to Shikamaru, "Hey, what are we supposed to do now? Boy Wonder over here's already decided for us."

Shikamaru glanced at his meditating brother and his now glowing Pokemon before glancing back at the Ice Temple. A short blue glow fell over his usually grey eyes before he sighed again, a longer, deeper sigh, "It looks like the lower levels are crumbling. It's an old building, so it'll be troublesome to even try to repair it since the thing's made from ice and cement. I'm sitting this one out. It's minus 60 degrees in there."

Naruto opened his now crimson eyes and stood up before turning towards his trusted Pokemon and nodding, "Yeah, I felt it to. There about three auras down there, one belongs to a Legend and the other two are probably Candice and an Abomasnow? I don't know, it's really big."

Gaara sighed, "Alright, so the rescue mission is on my ass. I'm helping. It couldn't hurt, and I've always wanted to see a Regice in the spring."

Shikamaru smiled lazily, "It's August dumbass."

Gaara simply flashed him a small smirk while Naruto and his Lucario had already disappeared into the crowd.

Shikamaru watched on from his perch on the Pokemon Centre's staircase as his brothers disappeared into the crowd and appeared on the other side. He pulled out a Silver Poke brand cigarette and began smoking it as they disappeared into the crumbling Ice Temple.

"Don't blow our covers."

He exhaled.

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**Snowpoint City: Ice Temple: ?**

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The halls were dark and the ice on the floors were an iridescent blue hue, illuminating the frozen palace in an eerily beautiful way. Patterns and inscriptions in braille littered the walls some covered in the transparent ice and others covered in a light sheen of water. They were on B-Floor 3 and the drip-dropping of the melting stalactites was driving Gaara insane. It was quiet, and every footstep echoed and reverberated loudly, alerting every living thing that they were trespassers, yet, for an ancient resting place of a Legend of ice, it was oddly devoid of life. Not even an occasional Golbat or, its more common prevolution, Zubat.

Nothing.

Gaara was on edge. Lucario and Naruto were both using their auras to illuminate the caves further, causing the walls to be bathed in a beautiful red and deep blue colour; still, the silence was what was driving him off the deep-end. His aqua eyes flitted around for a while before he noticed off in the corner of the caves, a beautiful blue jacket.

"Hey, what's that?" 

Naruto and Lucario immediately turned their heads in the direction and narrowed their eyes. "It's a size fourteen girls' jacket. Candice's."

Gaara nodded as the trio made their way to the end of the cave.

Suddenly, the ice they were standing on cracked.

A large tremor shook the cave causing the ice to break into large chunks, forcing the three to split up. Naruto had jumped to the left, while his Lucario and Gaara had ended up on the right. Suddenly, Gaara's unease was forgotten as he allowed his battle instincts to take the forefront of his mind over. The ice had shattered in four places, revealing the on-going struggle below.

Candice had freed Regice. The Pokemon was rather angry at that and had begun attacking her. Its constant barrage of attacks had hit the solid structures holding the temple up and as such, was causing the temple to break-apart.

Gaara glanced at his brother and the unspoken message between them flickered.

All three of them jumped down into the icy war-zone below.

.  
>.<p>

.

The three rescuers flickered into existence about ten or so feet from the raging ice legend's Hyper Beam, forcing them to immediately separate to avoid the attack. The large yellowish beam took out a large chunk of a left-most pillar causing another tremor to rock the crumbling Ice temple. Naruto's red eyes scanned the room and located the unmoving body of Candice who was frozen in what seemed to be an Ice Beam gone bad. Her Glaceon was also knocked out next to her. Naruto's crimson eyes met his Lucario's eyes as he passed a mental command to his trusted companion, "_Link us all up. I have a plan."_

Gaara felt the familiar pull of Lucario's Psychic before lending him access to his mind, _"Naruto has a plan?"_

Lucario smirked, "_Of course."_

The blond rolled his eyes from across the room before he turned his attention back to the raging legend, "_Listen Gaara, Regice is really distressed. I'm thinking that I'll calm him down before he completely wrecks this place. I need you to re-enforce the pillars it's already taken out. Our first priority is making sure that this place doesn't crumble like Shikamaru's cookies. Give me Hydreigon since he has the most experience with icy terrain so far."_

Gaara's face turned sour for a bit before he pulled out Hydreigon's Pokeball and tossed it to his brother.

"_Why can't you just use Lucario? Isn't that why you took her out in the first place?" _

Naruto's deadpan could be seen from across the room.

The blonde glanced back at Candice's unmoving body before he glanced the ice legend; it was obvious that it was attempting to find whatever had dropped down into its cave. Its clunky footsteps shook the ice floors which were already close to breaking. The blonde looked back at his brother, _"Lucario needs to get Candice and her Glaceon out of here, first and foremost. That's the reason why we even came down here, wasn't it?"_

Gaara was about to reply when a prominent clicking sound echoed throughout the room. All parties turned their heads towards Regice who was now directly across the room from Gaara and Lucario. The sound of chirping Starly was heard as electricity gathered into Regice's hands. Naruto paled.

"_IT KNOWS ZAP CANNON?!"_

The red head's eyes widened as he pulled his brother's trusted Pokemon from the path of wreckage just before the deadly beam was levelled. The blinding yellow knocked down three pillars that lay to the back of the room. Another major tremor rocked the tower as the back of the room began to crumble, rocks piling up and ice shattering with nothing stopping it.

"Gaara, Lucario, get moving!"

Gaara pulled out a small blue sack filled with glowing blue dirt and consumed about half a teaspoon's worth. His aqua eyes turned a cerulean blue as he moved towards the pillar in an inhuman burst of speed. Lucario's body was illuminated by a beautiful white glow as it Extremespeeded to Candice's locating, a Fire Punch already charging to break the ice.

Naruto looked up at Regice who was now deciding whether to chase after Gaara or Lucario. He smirked as he picked up and handful of snow and melded it into a perfect snowball and tossed it straight at the fuming giant. It turned its large body in his direction and levelled a stare (don't ask me how, all Regice has are those…dot things) at the blond trickster. Naruto held up an Ultra Ball, "Hey! Regice! Do ya think you could calm down for a bit? This place is gonna come down on top of us if you don't stop blowing things u-"

A large blue beam was fired in the blonde's direction forcing him to jump above the beam and land on top of an icy stalactite. He managed to see that Lucario had already dashed out of the cave and his brother was successfully re-modelling the pillars. He smiled a dangerous smile that promised punishment as he pulled out his brother's Hydreigon.

The blue and purple Pokemon looked around for his trainer before spotting Naruto. It made a sound of confusion before dodging a massive Ancient Power from his opponent. Now Hydreigon was usually extremely gentle, such was its nature, however, when opponents attacked unprovoked, then he got mad.

A loud roar of irritation echoed throughout the room alerting Gaara to his Pokemon's plight. The red head trainer rolled his eyes, "Be careful with my Hydreigon, Naruto. If he's even slightly injured I'm hanging your ass on the flag pole in front of the Pokemon Center."

Naruto's smile stretched even further, even if that was impossible, "Don't worry Gaara. You ready Hydreigon?"

The irritated Pokemon roared its approval.

"Fire Blast."

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**Oookay! Let's just randomly end here! I don't know it's short but it gets the message across. Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone. I need to practice writing battle scenes since they currently suck, but that's just me talking. If you guys couldn't get it in the passage, Hydreigon is Gently Natured which means that it has Special Defence boosted and Defence down. It's also a contest Hydreigon because Gaara loves participating in contests. Anyway, see you guys next week… hopefully.**

**-Tenshi**

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**Project Maelstrom Database: Project Sandstream a.k.a. Gaara**

**Physically the second eldest however, the youngest of the project, Gaara was subjected to the worst treatments in the facility. Due to his various abuses, he became detached, bloodthirsty and trigger happy. He was the single cause of more scientist deaths than even the Mew2 experiment when it was freed, which earned him a prolonged stay in Room 524, an advanced torture room designed for solitary confinement. After becoming acquainted with Shikamaru and consequently Naruto and observing the way they handled their confinement, he became happier. After escaping he slowly became more and more people friendly, and, after taking part in his first Kalos contest, he became confident. His genetic makeup consists of ½ Tyranitar, 1/8 Hippowdon, 1/8 Human and ¼ Excadrill.**

**Fun Fact: His favorite food is spice fried Feebas. He doesn't like Milotic because he believes that they all think that they are the prettiest Pokemon in the world so when he tried spice fried Feebas for the first time, and found that he liked it, he made it a habit to always have a stick on him. He's often seen with the left-over stick in his mouth and purposely eats cubes of the stuff in front of Naruto's Milotic, just to get a rise from it. This usually results in a large amount of reactions ranging from Ice Beams to Water Pulses and even Hydro Pumps. He usually escapes unscathed though.**

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	3. I wonder if people pay attention to this

**Chapter Three: Temari the Observer**

**Yo~~ Hi everyone, this is probably going to be my last consistent chapter. School is starting in a couple days at the time of writing this so uploads might end up being around a week apart, since I'm going to have to find time to upload during my weekend now. What's worse is that I go to like, fifteen different types of lessons, so I'm going to really have to use my power of time management this time around. I also have to finish up the plot documents for both this story and My Crazy Boyfriend so I can get back on track with that properly. I was actually pretty pleased with the amount of feedback I've gotten on the couples, so by chapter five or six, I'll put the results of the polls up and switch the stories around to suit them. I'm actually weird since I tend to write out all possible routes for this fic to take before deciding on which route would be best. Anyway, I feel like this is required to state but as far as people from the Narutoverse that I'm bringing in, these are them:**

**Itachi, Deidara, Sasori, Kisame, Suigetsu, Haku, Zabuza, Temari, Kankurou, the Rookie Nine, Kakashi, Guy, Pein, Konan, Madara, Hanabi and Minato. **

**At least, those are the people that will have an impact on the main characters in some way, form or fashion. Of course, there will be more, and if you guys want a character from Naruto or Pokemon to be included, then you can request it, I'm, not promising that it'll be done, but I might try my best to give them a cameo or something. **

**All of that said, enjoy this chap, and please don't forget to review.**

**Disclaimer: It's a New Year. I don't even have ORAS yet. Don't mention the right to this franchise. Naruto is finished anyway…**

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**Snowpoint City: Outside of the Ice Temple: 5.p.m.**

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Lazy grey eyes looked on at the large crowd of people that were around the slowly crumbling structure known as the Ice Temple. He sighed, exhaling a large, wispy cloud of cigarette smoke from his nose and mouth, his brothers were idiots alright. Just three years ago, they had wanted to commit worldwide genocide and now they were rebuilding a crumbling tower for the benefits of the humans. Oh how the tides had turned.

A small smirk found its way onto his visage.

Inhale.

Exhale.

He closed his eyes and mentally counted down from twenty, he could hear the pitter-patter of his brother's favorite Pokemon's inky black paws against the ice, even from this distance. The extra weight of the gym leader and… what was that?

Oh, a Glaceon. The raven had thought something was off about Lucario's aura. It was being slowly frozen over.

Inhale.

Exhale.

The tell-tale cry of Lucario beckoned him towards it. Shikamaru sighed deeply again. He dropped his cigarette, putting it out by stepping on it and stuffed his gloved hands into his pocket, moving slowly towards the front of the tightly packed crowd with calculated, lazy steps, "How troublesome. I can't even finish a cigarette in peace."

.

.

.

Jubilife TV female reporter Temari along with her cameraman Kankurou were front and centre at the site of the Snowpoint City Gym Leader's accident. They had originally planned to get the story of Candice performing her third expedition into the dangerous temple but when they had received word of the leader's plight, Temari had decided that getting the scoop on the injury, recovery and accident itself would be much more interesting. She and her little brother had listened and watched all of the events unfold, from the initial crumbling of the tower to the blonde and red blurs that had run into the collapsing tower to receive the Gym Leader. It had been quite some time since then, however but one thing that was apparent was that there was no more roaring coming from the temple, which suggested that the people that had run into the tower had calmed down whatever was in there. Another thing was the fact that the temple was no longer crumbling quickly. Instead, if anything, it seemed like the temple was re-aligning itself.

It was now five in the evening and pretty soon, they would have to go to break and get something warm to drink and warmer to wear, after all, Snowpoint City was one of the coldest in the world, bested only by Snowbelle in Kalos so staying in only one layer of clothing after six wasn't really bright.

The blonde woman sighed deeply; her brother was sitting in the snow, his camera focused on the entrance of the temple just in case something sudden happened. She turned her brown eyes towards the crowd that had assembled behind her, they were all waiting with baited breath for their beloved Gym Leader to return, Candice was a cheerful person, she made the usually unbearable winters of Snowpoint a lot more fun, especially for the children who were unable to train Pokemon or had to spend it alone. Thinking about the young ice trainer made a small smile bloom upon Temari's face. Candice had actually agreed to do an interview for her 'Gym Leader Special' but now, it seemed like that was unlikely.

"Hey sis, I'm gonna go to the bathroom. There's snow in my pants."

The blonde woman rolled her eyes, "Whatever, make it quick and bring me back some coffee, it looks like this is going to be a long night."

Kankurou grinned, his black eyes crinkling as he got up and dusted his grey snow pants off. He was promptly thrown back onto the ground however, as he had turned around and straight into the rather tall frame of a man with black hair.

Kankurou was about to tell the guy off, really he was, but as he looked up and into the steel grey eyes of the offender, he swallowed all complaints with an audible gulp. Temari turned around, shaking her head at her brother's antics ready to scold the man for pushing her brother down, when she realised that she had to look up.

Did she mention that he was tall?

Temari herself was a respectable height of five feet and six inches with her brother coming up to about five feet nine, but this guy, he was about six feet five inches, on top of which, the bastard was slouching! He had his silky black hair tied up into a pineapple like ponytail with a green and black coat. His pants were black and he wore black and white snow boots. He smelt rather strongly of nicotine, like he just finished smoking a cigarette and his steel grey eyes twinkled with poorly hidden amusement. All things considered, he was hot.

Temari smirked at the man, which he dutifully returned, her brother would be fine, it was just some snow after all. "So, what gives you the right to throw poor cameramen into the snow, huh?"

He shrugged his shoulders, keeping his eyes on the door of the temple like he was expecting something to poof into existence on the steps. His eyes took on a faint red hue before he sighed and turned towards Kankurou who was readjusting his camera, "Hey, I'd put on that camera now if I were you."

Kankurou looked up at him in confusion before gasps rang out through the crowd. A very distinctive roar sounded from the front of the temple. A sleek looking Lucario had stopped in front of the tall man, bowing his head slightly and bending his body forward and quite literally dropping the half frozen body of Candice into the snow.

A hush fell over the crowd and no one moved for a while, well except for the tall stranger who was now petting the Lucario with a soft smile on his face. The Lucario snorted before it began relaying what seemed to be a message to him, surprisingly enough, the man just shook his head, "No. Leave them alone in there. Naruto is just about done anyway."

The Lucario growled in disapproval before a spark of annoyance flickered in its red eyes, "Luca Lucario! Lu Cario!" The Nurse Joy it was growling at shivered slightly due to the amount of emotion flaring around it, it was definitely a well-trained Pokemon.

The tall stranger sighed like it was all a chore and turned towards Nurse Joy, "Are you just gonna let Candice die from Hypothermia or…?"

This seemed to finally start the world around the man and his Pokemon. Various people rushed to get to Candice; all trying their hardest to make sure the gym leader was safe and sound. Paramedics had all wheeled her off to the nearest hospital and while Kankurou had wanted to follow the rush of bodies, Temari stayed behind with the stranger and his Lucario.

The blonde reporter turned towards the camera, Kankurou counting down from three silently.

Lights.

Camera.

Action.

"We're live from the site of the Ice Temple incident where Gym Leader Candice was just wheeled off to the hospital. Our sources tell us that while she was out on another expedition, she had slipped inside of one of the innermost chambers, injuring her leg-"

"That's wrong."

Temari stopped. She looked over to the stranger who was now sitting in the evening snow, petting the Lucario lazily. She signalled for Kankurou to continue filming discreetly and plastered on a smile, "Oh and you have the full story?"

The man rolled his eyes, "I don't but they do."

Temari found herself stopping for the third time, "Who are 'they', exactly?"

The raven haired man tilted his head in the direction of the temple's front once more releasing his hold on Lucario and allowing the deep blue Pokemon to run towards what seemed to be its real trainer, a man with bright blonde hair.

Temari's eyes widened as she saw another man, shorter than the blonde, emerge from the temple's front. The red head looked considerably scruffier than the blonde and apparently something had gone on between the two that was hilarious, since the blonde was laughing loudly. The tall stranger grunted as he got up from his spot on the snow and dusted his pants off. He stretched his back out and sighed before waving his hands to get the attention of the two bright haired people.

The blonde had reached the stranger first diving behind him quickly and using his tall, lanky frame as a human shield from the frowning red-head, "Shika-nii, it was the worst! Gaara threatened to bury me with his sand!"

The red head had somehow materialized in front of the raven, Shika, and had a small frown on his face, "That's all because the blonde idiot didn't do his job properly!"

The blonde stuck his tongue out at Gaara, "I stopped Regice. My job was done."

Gaara rolled his eyes, "If you call that stopping. You could've ended that battle in one hit, yet you drew it out. You made my job harder; I spent almost three handfuls of sand to repair those frames you know."

The blonde was about to retort when two loud hits resounded through the air of the city. Shika was now frowning while the two men… if you could call them that, were now holding their heads. "Now then, if you two ladies are finished arguing over who looks prettier in that dress, would you two explain why it took you five hours to fix this?"

The blonde immediately adopted a sheepish look while Gaara was now glaring holes into his head, "It was a minor glitch in the plan."

Shika raised an eyebrow, "A five-hour glitch?"

Gaara sighed, "He didn't think that he'd have to catch the Regice, so he played around with it for a while and then knocked it out. Due to the floors already being unstable, this led to Regice falling through the floors to the bottommost basement. We had to lug it all the way back to the third floor."

Shika's frown deepened as he glanced towards the hyper-active blonde. The blonde scratched behind his head timidly, "The battle took out the stairwell?" Naruto made it sound more like a question than a report.

"Why didn't you catch it?"

"Didn't want to."

"So you two spent five hours on this little side project because you wanted to play around with a Legendary?"

"Hey, in hindsight, I didn't think it'd take five hours, okay?"

The tall man sighed, "Troublesome. Both of you."

Temari had had just about enough of being kept in the dark at this point, she had gotten bits and pieces of information from their little argument but she was a reporter on a mission, "Hello, could you please tell me just what the hell is going on here?"

The change in atmosphere was instant.

The blonde's smile dropped as he sharply turned his head towards the blonde woman. His bright cerulean eyes became just the slightest bit icier as he looked at her while his previously relaxed posture straightened out, much like a predator. Gaara turned towards her quickly, his face and posture becoming blank, while Shika simply turned his head towards her.

"Oh yeah, since you two wanted to help out you have no problems telling the pretty journalist about your endeavours, right?"

Temari ignored the pretty comment and held out her mic in front of the blonde since he seemed like the one out of the two that would quicker talk about the heroic rescue. Temari turned briefly towards her brother who assured her that the cameras were still rolling. She breathed in and adopted a professional look pushing the microphone into his face and beginning her slew of questioning, "Temari Sabaku here with one of the mysterious rescuers of Gym Leader Candice. Please, tell us your name and exactly what transpired down in the temple."

The blonde relaxed considerably after her little introduction, though he still looked a bit nervous about speaking on television. He put on his wide grin, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki and what happened down in the temple really wasn't my doing. My brother, Gaara, really did all of the work, what with him repairing the temple and all."

Temari's eyebrow rose as she turned her attention onto the stoic redhead, "Care to explain exactly how you remodelled a century year old crumbling ice tower from the inside out?"

The redhead grumbled under his breath for a second before looking straight into the camera, "No."

Temari was shocked. No one had ever so blatantly declined a chance at fame, especially not in such a straight forward way. "I don't think you understand just how amazing you and your brother are, Gaara. To save a gym leader like Candice and come back without a scratch is astounding, really. Don't you think that the good people of Snowpoint and Sinnoh as a whole deserve to know how you accomplished such a feat?"

Gaara shook his head, "No, if you all cared so much about Candice you wouldn't have waited for complete strangers to rescue her."

The blonde reporter frowned and turned towards her brother, "Cut."

Kankurou gave her a thumbs up and quickly shut his camera up, a slightly sour look settling onto his face at the redhead's rudeness. The journalist folded her hands across her chest, "What gives you the right to be so rude? I'm just doing my job, got that? Whatever personal vendettas you have against Candice or whatever shouldn't show when you just did something like that. If you want to get anywhere in life, you better lose that attitude."

Naruto paled a bit as Shikamaru placed a hand on Gaara's shoulder since the redhead's mounting agitation was slowly becoming palpable. The journalist turned around and began helping her brother pack up, which was the trio's cue for leaving.

Something told Shikamaru that this wasn't going to be their last meeting.

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**Snowpoint City: Pokemon Center: 1:30 .a.m.**

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Bright aquamarine eyes flickered open as a certain redhead looked up into the iron grid of his big brother's top bunk. Shikamaru had left about five minutes prior to go smoke one of his cancer sticks since he, much like Gaara himself, couldn't sleep through the night.

Naruto's snores filled the room, the loud sounds reverberating and bouncing off of the four walls of the cramped Pokecenter Lodge they had rented out for the duration of their stay. At times like these, Gaara never really thought about much, his thoughts usually taking random paths, ranging from new combinations for his contests to possible additions for his 'Sinnoh Run'.

There was a small growl of irritation from Lucario as his trainer probably kicked him for the umpteenth time for the night. Gaara knew that sleeping out of his pokeball was a habit that the Lucario had picked up from since it was a Riolu, but really, Naruto was a brutally strong person whose kicks packed as much punch as a Lopunny's, how the steel/fighting duel type put up with the constant barrages of subconscious hits was a mystery to him.

A bright light flashed from the top bunk.

Silence.

Gaara smiled, Lucario finally got fed up it seemed. The redhead coordinator sighed and got up from his bed. He grabbed his trainer bag and slipped on his Mareep wool jacket and an extra crispy meat cube, unwrapping the package as he made his way to the front of the building.

To his surprise, his eldest brother wasn't in the waiting area. It seemed like Nurse Joy had forced him to go outside to smoke since he was sitting on the bench in the shelter of the Poke centre's roof.

The sliding doors opened as the chilly air caressed the coordinator's face. The snow crunched under his boots as he shuffled over to his brother and plopped sown gracefully next to him. It was lightly snowing; the city was wrapped in silence with the odd Hoothoot cry or Sneasel call occasionally contributing to background noises. The two siblings sat in near silence, the only sound between them being the crunch of Gaara's snack and the exhale of Shikamaru's smoke. Shikamaru sighed, pulling his cigarette from his lips and allowing the smoke to mingle in his system for a bit before exhaling, the chill turning most of the smoke into water vapour and condensing the rest.

"It's been a while since we did this, huh?"

Gaara looked up at his freakishly tall brother, a side effect from his experiments, they had always said, "Yeah. Do you still have the nightmares?"

The raven took his last inhale from his cigarette stub before flicking the nub into the snow, the last of the ember dying down before he exhaled, "Every single night."

The redhead nodded and bit into his cube once more. It was strange, they each had their own little ways of dealing with what the past had dealt them, each was different, something that defined them, he thought.

He swallowed, "Do you think we have any family out there?"

At this his brother allowed a lazy grin to spread across his face, his nose was getting red and his Misdreavous scarf wasn't covering his mouth anymore, "What, me and Naruto aren't enough for you anymore? I'm hurt."

Gaara smiled around his cube, swallowing the last of the morsel and sticking the wooden pick into his mouth, "You know what I mean."

Shikamaru yawned, placing his hands behind his head, "Don't know, but at this point, I'm not entitled to care. The way I see it, you guys are what I have left, so I'm not gonna go around looking for relatives just yet."

Gaara turned his attention to the night sky, the stars countless and twinkling. He turned his attention back to his brother who was smiling at him, a warm smile, something that clearly said _'I'm proud of you.'_

"You did a good thing today."

Gaara snorted, "What, tell the reporter off? She had it coming sticking a camera in my face like that."

Shikamaru rapped his palm against his head playfully, "Not that idiot. You and Naruto have come a long way, if it was anything like Kalos, you guys would've probably let the tower crumble and kill her."

Gaara frowned, "You could've helped too you know. Would've saved us five hours."

Shikamaru smiled lazily and turned back to the stars, "Nah. Too much effort, besides, Gengar wanted a nap."

The redhead stared at his brother with a deadpan, "Did he get one?"

"Nope."

"You're an idiot."

"That's fine."

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**Okay. This is good place to stop, yeah? Yeah.**

**Okay we have a bit more plot progression with the first arc being done and the trio being introduced to Temari and Kankurou. We also have some insight to Shikamaru and Gaara's relationship, the two of them suffer from constant nightmares from their past so they bond over that. Of course, this isn't the last we'll see of Reporter Temari Sabaku and her trusty cameraman Kankurou, but they won't be showing up for a little bit. Candice's recovery doesn't really matter to me, so we'll have the outcome in a flashback or something. **

**We also got to see some of Shikamaru's roll in the group, since they all have altered personalities, Shika has to play the role of the big brother/mother/father figure seeing as he is the most mature, lazy or not. I'm just going to tell you guys that next chapter will be a lot more fun since, spoilers!, Haku and Zabuza will be appearing! Yes, they play a role in the pre-canon act that will pave the way for the rest of Sinnoh! **

**Anyway, Gaara doesn't like Temari and Shikamaru smokes, a lot. We know what Gaara and Shika's coping methods are, but what are Naruto's? We';; find out soon, anyway, that all for now, see ya later**

**-Tenshi**

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**Project Maelstrom Database: Project Shadow a.k.a. Shikamaru Nara**

**Shikamaru Nara stands at a startling 6''8 however, due to his slouching; he's usually around 6"5-6. His hair is just below his shoulders and is actually a very deep shade of chocolate. He had steel grey eyes that change colour with his emotions (black for anger, storm blue for sad, silver for happy, light blue for serious) however whenever he's using one of his sensory abilities his eyes become either bright red or electric blue. Due to his genetic makeup, Shikamaru can read minds and usually has migraines and nosebleeds due to data overload, which is why he hates crowds. He uses cigarettes to dull his senses especially before going into large crowds or cities where everything is overwhelming. Contrary to popular belief, his lazy is due to him having to regulate his blood pressure since he suffers from low blood pressure and too much moving can give him high blood pressure and pop a vein or artery, it has happened before. Despite his complications, Shikamaru enjoys running the most out of all physical activities and has extremely good stamina, actually being able to keep up with Naruto during marathon runs around regions. He appreciates watching clouds, stars and waves since he claims that "…they slow down brain activity enough for him to think more about not thinking…" **


	4. Umm I want Chocolate?

**Chapter 4: The Kirigakure Daycare!**

**Hi everyone! Tenshi here and I'm sorry about my update time, but I warned you guys that this would happen. Anyway, I tell you guys that I spent about three hours yesterday watching old Pokemon Diamond and Pearl contests with Dawn and Nando and Zoey just to get a feel for how I'm going to do this. Oh and Haku and Zabuza mightn't be in this chap after all… or they might be it depends on how I end up writing this~~**

**Here are a couple replies to reviews that I couldn't reply to before:**

**Matt: Well, yes and no. He's related, just not in the way you'd think.**

**Maître-Loup: I see you big dog;))**

**Zirocks: Thanks! Their backstories are going to be segmented tho'!**

**Oh and the entirety of the Akatsuki is going to be in this story along with the bijuu… hooray…**

**Ah, one thing I should have mentioned from since Chapter One is that all of them are able to talk to Pokemon comfortably. So:**

_"__Pikachu" is Poke-Speak_

**Disclaimer: Still don't own ORAS so no…**

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**Route 216: Sinnoh Region: 7: 30 a.m.**

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Naruto cursed softly under his breath as he, along with his two brothers were being dragged to a unknown location through the snow, blind-folded. Honestly, he should've guessed by now that both Arceus and Giratina had it out for them but this was just beyond ridiculous.

Their poke balls had been seized along with Gaara's weapons and knapsack containing his snacks. It was a strange feeling, being ambushed by a band of Weavile and Glalie, especially when you were as attuned to Pokemon as the three of them. By far, the most memorable moment had been when they threw Shikamaru into a net and bathed him with snow, effectively causing him to go into a small frost induced coma. It was absolutely ridiculous the efficiency that these Pokemon had but when Naruto had attempted to talk to them they had answered in extremely frigid and curt voices that they had encroached on their Master's property.

So, now, three hours after the offense, Naruto, Gaara and Shikamaru were all bound to what felt like iron poles with a heavily layered Ice Beam keeping them from moving. It was unfortunate really; the day had started out so well, what with all of them actually waking up at four to train. Sure Shikamaru only trained until six, but that was more work than he had done since they left Hoenn and that was saying that he was finally ready to start the newest chapter of their hectic life.

The blonde was brought out of his musings when he felt them all come to an abrupt stop. Sure, he was blinded and bound but that didn't mean he couldn't see where they were. The blonde could smell stagnant water and he could hear the murmurs of various Pokemon ranging from Snover to Froslass, he could also smell fresh frost, which meant that they were still outside.

The slight scrunching of snow alerted him to a presence directly in front of him and his battalion of capturers. The smell of herbs and snow along with something subtly smelling of mountain dew permeated his nostrils. This person was dangerous, whoever they were, and the way they held themselves up was enough to point that they were a warrior of some sort. The blonde briefly felt his brothers tense behind him, or rather his brother since Shikamaru was still out cold which meant hat Gaara definitely figured it out as well.

"Sly, what exactly is this?"

The blonde trainer was not, however, expecting the soft sound of a feminine voice to be behind the vicious Pokemon.

There was brief silence where the Pokemon retold the tale of their capture to its trainer which, by the end, had the woman laughing heartily.

"Sly, Clear, untie these poor people! They were passing through, not aiming to cause any trouble, yes?"

The Weavile mumbled briefly under its breath before unleashing a quick application of Fury Swipes to the iron shaft and snapping it into pieces and freeing the three in the process. The dark duel type then took the blindfolds off of the offenders and made its way across the room to sit with a group of Sneasel.

It was a bit disorienting after having their vision impaired for such an extended period of time, but Naruto and Gaara could be bothered with that at the moment. Shikamaru's breathing had become laboured; the cold air around them had worsened his condition, unfortunately. The tall raven was pale and cold-sweating, not good signs at all.

Immediately Naruto turned towards the lady standing in front of them, "Do you have a heat-conducting room or area? Anything above 39 degrees Celsius?"

The woman was surprised at his request but she didn't refuse him, having seen the condition of his tall companion when they had entered. She sighed, "Zabuza isn't going to like this…" she mumbled before turning toward the blond once more, "Bring him and follow me, I'll make sure that Sly Blue gives you all back your belongings."

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**Unknown Location: Sinnoh Region: ?**

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The woman had brought them to a large circular room that housed various degrees of bedding and furniture. It was made of wood and glass with three large beds tucked into a corner of the room and futons lying haphazardly on the floor. In the middle of the room was a huge fireplace that was being tended to by a man with silver gravity-defying hair, a black facemask and an eye patch over his right eye. He stopped throwing coals into the fire and turned around bowing slightly in recognition of the woman and then turning towards the three. His coal black eye widened, "Naruto? Gaara? Shikamaru? Why are you all here?"

The blonde broke into a smile before dropping his face once more, "Nice to see you to Kakashi, but Shikamaru needs heat. And fast."

The silverette smirked and pointed to the roaring fireplace, "Heat away."

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After laying Shikamaru down in front of the fireplace, the four of them sat down in a nearby table to talk.

"I am Haku. This is a Pokemon Sanctuary known as the Kirigakure Daycare run by myself and my father, Zabuza. I truly am sorry about all of the trouble my Weavile and Glalie have caused, but we trained them to halt all attempts of trespass with brutal force."

Gaara nodded his head and twirled the wooden kebab stick that was in his hand, "We understand, I'm Gaara and this is my brother Naruto. The one who's resting is our elder brother Shikamaru."

Haku smiled before something else occurred to her, "How do you know Mr Hatake?"

At this the silver haired grounds man answered, "I travelled with them for quite some time. I'm well acquainted with them, trust me."

At this Naruto snorted, "Whatever you say, Eyepatch. I'll admit, when you said that you were going to find a job, I didn't think that this was what you had in mind."

Gaara sipped his tea leisurely, "True, but think about what Crimson and Helado must be doing now if this is what Kakashi calls 'work'."

The thought of their friends doing menial labour caused them both to burst into snickers.

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In Floaroma Town a certain red-head male sneezed violently, causing him to drop the crate of Sitrus sprouts he was carrying.

He rubbed his nose as a shiver ran down his spine, "Half-pint's talking about me. I know it."

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Kakashi's eyebrow twitched, "Haku, what do you think Zabuza's going to think when he finds the three of them in his resthouse?"

At this, the pale woman paled further, worrying Naruto and Gaara just a bit.

Kakashi sighed, "Exactly, we need them out of here before he comes back."

Naruto frowned, "This Zabuza guy can't be all that bad, right? We're just staying until Shikamaru's rested, and then we'll be back to Snowpoint in no time. This Daycare's on Acuity, isn't it?"

Haku nodded but then she frowned once more, "My father and I… well, to be blunt are wanted criminals in certain cities of Sinnoh. Candice was kind enough to allow us to settle here and my father takes no chances with what we've been granted. It's the reason my pokemon are so well trained, if the police show up, we have to defend ourselves."

Gaara nodded in understanding, "So he doesn't take kindly to strangers?"

Haku nodded.

Naruto glanced across to Shikamaru who was slowly gaining colour back in his face, before groaning, "Why the hell can't we just, for once, not end up in these stupid situations?!"

Gaara patted his brother's head, "There, there, calm down and think, we have to find a way to get Zabuza to agree to us staying here."

Kakashi shrugged, "He let me stay when I beat him in a one-on-one."

Gaara sent a flat look to the grounds keeper, "Battle or combat?"

"Both."

Haku shook her head, "My father won't let you stay, Mr Hatake joining us was enough, he won't tolerate-" she was cut off when the door to the room was hastily opened, revealing a heavily bandaged man holding onto a long, broad sword. He rushed up to the fireplace and plunked down in front of it.

He was tall and well-built. He had dark skin and piercing slate grey eyes. His bandages covered his mouth and nose along with his neck and hands. He wore a thick brown fur coat and striped pants that were covered in a downy material. He was also wearing a cute Meowth beanie which undermined his look somewhat. He sighed in relief, "Haku, a blizzard's started out there. I'm staying inside for the rest of-"

He immediately stopped talking when he saw Shikamaru laid out in front of him.

"Haku, who's the kid?"

The man turned around and was greeted with an eyeful of blazing red and golden blonde. He narrowed his eyes and tightened his hold on his sword.

"Start talking."

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**Unknown Location: Unknown Region: ?**

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A tall man dressed in a blue and grey pinstripe suit sighed and ran a head through his spiky cyan hair. He was drinking a glass of red wine and enjoying the air outside, well at least he was, but then his… subordinate walked out.

He had long spiky black hair that was tied behind his back with a red and gold ribbon. His eyes were an endless coal black and he was wearing… a pink frilled dress?

The man with blue hair sighed even deeper this time feeling the intense urge to punch something but the man is pink stopped him, "It would seem that the dog has made contact with the Cyborg. He has sent this message."

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**The plot thickens~~ **

**I'm really sorry about never updating but during the week, full reign of our computer goes to my brothers. Then there was the whole sick fiasco and the fact that I was adjusting to an NSEC syllabus which began pissing me off. However, after much anticipation (and procrastination) it's up!**

**I want to thank all of you suckers who read, favourite and reviewed not to mention who actually ****_read_**** this thing. Please ensure your body is ready because I'm going to run your expectations through the mud, hell and hopefully earth again. I finished the plot for this as well as the way everything works and I have to say, I'm surprised at the amount of crap that's going to happen. **

**Oh and if you aren't all there for major character death then….**

**Once again, thank you all for putting up with me, see ya (hopefully next week)**

**-Eren **


	5. AUTHOR'S NOTES 'cuz I can

**Very Important Authors note from the Ever-Moving Eren-mama~!**

**Hello my lovely followers and readers and so forth~! I have some rather exciting news for the readers of Team Prima and Project Maelstrom!**

**I'm going to be restarting and rewriting both of them!**

**Reasons for this is more or less the same for both, while I was fine tuning the respective plots for both of the stories, I discovered that I needed to do some major, like **_**super major**_** renovating on the way the story itself was presented. For example, had Team Prima continued the way it was going, I would have had to kill off Ulquiorra and Kisuke to get the main plot going. Furthermore, Grimmjow would've nearly killed Shirosenso, Ichigo would've been angsty until Byakuya killed himself for him and Zangetsu would've been influenced by Zeref, snapping out of it in time with the Edolas Arc. It would've become this huge mess of drama and angst and feelings and underhanded manipulations and so forth, and that's not what Team Prima is supposed to be about. It was supposed to and still is a story about the bonds of brotherhood, friendship and the magic of choreographed ass-kicking and that's the story I plan to write. It's supposed to be a story that takes itself serious when it needs to, and where I was heading with Team Prima was more leaning towards 'Betrayal and Second Chances' or one of those Naruto x Young Justice crosses where things just get… too… confusing. That's not what I wanted, and I'm pretty sure you guys didn't want me building bonds with these characters just to kill them off in some heartfelt and unexpected way.**

**Team Prima is NOT 11eyes or Another. I've had enough of that and I've already read enough of that angsty mess to even consider writing it.**

**Project Maelstrom wasn't going to end up being angsty. The problem would've been too many fillers and unnecessary chapters filled with nothing of substance except for some obscure detail that would've ended up being important later. I had told you guys from the beginning that it was an experimental run and as such, after completing and solidifying the plot, I've decided to restart it and rebuild it from the bottom up. Sure, I could've eliminated the fillers but it's kinda like watching Bleach. Those fillers just so happen to be rather important so…**

**Anyway, don't worry or anything, the main premise of both stories will remain the same. Team Prima will continue to be a story about friendship and bonds and the development of the main three characters and the way their past and fit in with the rest of the Fairy Tail members and so forth, however drama is inevitable and, for as much as I want to keep Team Prima light-hearted, certain things will have to happen, so please keep that in mind when reading it. Don't kill or crucify if shit hits the fan or if something mind-f*** worthy happens, what's a good story without investing the in feelings of the readers, right?**

**Same thing with Project Maelstrom, though definitely going to be exploring the darker side of Pokemon, a.k.a. Pokemon Deaths, conspiracy theories, discrimination and those subtle Nintendo hints, I still want it to be a rather enjoyable experience that makes you want to read it to the very end. I want you guys to be interested and invested and so forth and, as such, I am going back to the drawing board.**

**Now I will not be deleting these stories, they will stay uploaded as I do have to have reminders of my short-comings as an author. I'm extremely new to writing and is still wet-behind-the-ears. These are characters I'm new to and a genre I am unfamiliar with, so this is literally me still testing these waters. I need criticism, I require guidance and mistakes like these are inevitable. Amateur is amateur so this is how I choose to rectify this situation instead of scrapping the story and not saying anything at all. **

**With all of that said, I hope that you keep reading my stories (no matter how cringe worthy they are) and keep supporting me, please. Things like this is bound to happen sometime and I truly hope that you all have a happy and blessed life.**

**This was Tenshieren14, and all I can say is Happy Reading~!**

**-Akashi Nano alias Eren-chan**


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